Are you ready for Google Changing to Responsive Search Ads?

June 2022 brings in some of the biggest changes that Google Ads has made in a very long time. And if you are not ready, the results you see in your Google Ads campaign will suffer greatly. And when your results in Google Ads suffer, your business suffers because it's not getting the conversions and the sales that your business needs from your Google Ads campaign. And the first of the two big changes that Google Ads is rolling out in June 2022 is that from June 30, you will no longer be able to edit or add in any new expanded ads. And this is what I want to talk about in today's video so that you can make sure that your Google Ads campaign and your business is ready for this big change. But before we get in today's teaching, just in case we haven't met yet, my name is Aaron Young, and I'm your 15,000 hour Google Ads master. And I'm passionate about teaching you how you can best use Google Ads to grow your business or your client's business. And this can only be achieved when you're using Google Ads the right way. So if you want to keep up to date with the strategies that are working in Google Ads right now, why don't you give me a quick subscribe so that you never miss out when I release a new teaching video. Thank you so much. Now, if you don't know what this change involves, previously you were able to use two main types of ads in your Google Ad search campaigns, with them being expanded text ads and responsive search ads. And I do need to stress that from a user's point of view, nothing really changes you because when they actually complete their Google Ad search, they'll still generally be seeing three headlines and two descriptions. But the change relates to us as Google Ads professionals or business owners, because historically, when we were setting up expanded text ads, we would enter in our three headlines and our two descriptions, choosing the exact order of how we wanted those headlines to show and those descriptions to show. But now when we go to create responsive search ads in Google Ads, we we actually have to add up to 15 different headlines and four different descriptions, with Google choosing which ones actually show and what order they show in. And Google has been pushing this as a major selling point in that they can assist you to get the best performance because they'll be able to change the headlines and the descriptions that are shown dependent on the user's search terms and also their search history. However, the big issue is, is that Google cannot complete the required split testing unless it gets 5,000 impressions. In 30 days. With the issue being that the vast majority of ads will not actually see 5,000 impressions in 30 days. And this then forces your ads into an endless learning loop where Google can never actually find out which are the best headlines and descriptions to show for the best conversion rates and click through ratios. Now, even though this is a real issue, you do not need to fear about the change from expanded text ads to responsive search ads because I'm going to be taking you through the three top things that you need to do to make sure that you're going to be seeing higher click through ratios and conversion rates with your responsive search ads. So with all that said, let's get in today's teaching so that Your account is June 30th ready. Okay? So the first thing I want to talk to you about getting ready for this changeover to responsive search ads is don't forget the tried and tested structure of your headlines in Google Ads. Now your headlines in Google Ads are so important and the reason for that is because they are the first thing that people are going to see. And this is because Google has put their headlines into a bolder font, a larger font, and they are also in that blue color as opposed to the rest of your ad which is in a smaller black font and text. And this is why your high priority focus needs to be on your headlines and in your Google Ads copy. Because if people don't see your ad with the headlines and it doesn't grab their attention, they're not going to read the rest of the ad and more importantly, they're not actually going to go through and click through to your website. So even with responsive search ads you need to make sure that your headlines have these four core elements. Firstly is that you need to make sure that your headlines have a keyword focus. Now the reason for why this is so important is because it improves your click through ratio as people see what they are actually searching. And and another reason for why you need to make sure that you've got a keyword focus in your headlines is because Google also includes keyword focus in their ad quality scores. So by adding in that keyword focus to your headlines, it makes sure that people are not only going to click on your ad and increases the chances of them doing that, but it also puts downward pressure on your click through ratio because your ads have a higher ad quality rank from Google. And the second thing that your headline should include is a brand mention. Now for me this has always been a no brainer. And the reason for that is because you are paying for the ads. So don't waste the opportunity to get your brand name in front of your potential clients. And even if they don't click on your ad that time, the next time they do that search, they're more and more likely to click on your ad because they're seeing your brand's name more and more often. And the next point that I want to make abundantly clear is that your headlines in your responsive search ads should always have one that is dedicated to a strong call to action. And what we want to communicate here is what do you actually want them to do today and what benefit will they get when they do actually click on your ad? And the reason for why this is so important is because you're actually priming them for what they're going to be doing and what action you want them to take when they actually get to your website. So do you want them to go to your website to buy your product, or do you want them to give you a phone call? Or do you want them to go to your website and fill out an inquiry form? And then another type of your call to action, which you could include, leads us to the next point. And that is using emotional triggers. So your emotional triggers could be things about generating curiosity or amusement or laughter. But then what I also find works really well with a call to action is when you actually use an emotional trigger of fear. And one of the best ways of doing this is writing something like a limited sale or a limited offer. And then that way you're generating that fear that they don't want to miss out on a current offer or a special that you have on your product or your service. So even with Google Ads changing from expanded text ads to responsive search ads, don't forget those core elements that you need in your headlines so that you can ensure that you're getting higher click through ratios so that people are actually going through to your website. And one of those elements that you need to have in your headlines that we spoke about is having that strong keyword focus. And that's what I want to talk about next is the next point that you need to be making sure that you're including in your ads is, is using dynamic keyword insertion in your responsive search ads. And dynamic keyword insertion is one of the most powerful but yet underused features in Google Ads. And if you don't know what dynamic keyword insertion is, dynamic keyword insertion is where we use these brace or the little squiggly brackets. And then what it actually does is it dynamically inserts the keyword that the user used to trigger your ad and places it into your ad copy. So you can see here I've got two different variations of a dynamic keyword insertion and I've pinned them both in position one of my ad. So you can actually see through here that regardless of which ad we use or regardless of which ad is showing, you can actually see here that this headline actually changes to best insert the keyword that the user used to trigger your ad. And you can actually see here that I've got two variations here. I've actually got the first variation which is just a keyword example, so air conditioner cleaning. And then I've got another variation which is actually got the air con cleaning there again. But then we've actually added in some other text after the keyword insertion. Now you can actually add this in before the keyword insertion or after the keyword insertion. And you can actually see here on this example it's just got air conditioning cleaning. But if we scroll through, you can see here it actually says air con cleaning from just $99. And that's what we've added in here. And the reason for I actually like this is you've actually got the keyword target in there. But then you can also add in that extra text to add in a little bit of an extra element that you may want to use. So if you're running an E commerce store, you could actually put buy now or buy and then the keyword product. Or if you're running a service, you could actually put in a book now feature or like I've done in this example where you can actually put in a price example. And these are all things which are going to really, really help the performance of your ads. Now if you're unaware on how to actually use the dynamic keyword insertion, all you need to do is you need to just to go into any headline and then from there just type in the squiggly bracket or the bracelet. And then you just need to actually select keyword insertion. And as you can see, as we said at the start, it automatically updates your ads with the keywords that caused your ad to show. And then from there you just type in the keyword focus that you want to target and click apply. And now that we've spoken about dynamic keyword insertion and how to use that in your responsive search ads, that now brings us to our third and final point. And that is that you need to be completing manual split testing in Your ads every 30 days and the reason for why this is so important, because remember what I said at the start of this video is that Google actually needs 5,000 impressions in 30 days so that it can actually complete its testing. Now, because it's very likely that your ads are not going to be seeing those 5,000 impressions in 30 days. Because remember, that's per ad, so it's not your total account, it's on individual ads. And because that is the case, that is why you need to be completing random rounds of split testing or ab testing every 30 days in your Google Ads account. Now with this split testing is the process is, is that you want to have two different ads running in the same ad group. And what we're doing with their split tests is we're testing different headlines and descriptions. So you want to make sure that those two ads, even with the responsive search ads, have some different headlines and descriptions. And then the second thing that you want to be testing is the position of those headlines and, and the position of those descriptions. And that is done through pinning your headlines and your descriptions, forcing Google to place them in either position 1, 2 or 3 for your headlines. And what we're testing to see here is what headlines and descriptions give us the highest click through ratios and conversion metrics. Now, one of the most common split tests that I run at the moment is I'm actually running the same responsive search ads in the same ad group. But what I'm actually testing is, is I'm testing what happens to the ads when I pin a certain headline in position one and then a certain headline in position three versus another responsive search ad which doesn't have any headlines or descriptions pinned in. And I just want to show you very quickly how that looks. And what I want to show you here is some split testing that I've been running in a campaign over the last 60 days. And you can see through here that we've actually paused an ad because that was the split testing that we're running through April. And now I've got another split testing which have been running for the last two weeks. And you can see with our first round of split testing versus this ad which was also running is that we had similar click through ratios. But when it actually came down to the cost per conversion and the conversion rate, this one was a clear winner in here. And what we've got in this ad is that you can actually see we've pinned in our first headlines so that it's always got the keyword focus. And then our third headline, we're actually testing this Call to action from from just $39 a month, which is something that is tested well in the market so far because it does help build up a bit of confidence that this service is only going to be costing you $39 a month. And you can see from whichever example we use, you can see that at the start we've got that keyword focus, and then at the end we've got that call to action from just $39 a month. And then with our second ad in this ad group, which is running at the moment, we've still got that keyword focus pinned into position one, which you can see through here. But what we've got here in position three, we're actually testing a different call to action. So we request a free demo. So you can see there, whichever ad we actually use, it's always going to be putting requesting a free demo in that position three headline. So currently in our split test, what we're actually looking at doing is we're seeing which call to action works better, whether it's from just $39 per month or whether it's that secondary headline which is actually requesting a free demo. And then after we've completed that round of split testing, we can pause the ad which had the lower click through ratio and the lower conversion rates, and then add in a new responsive search ad testing another element, whether that would be a different call to action, or putting that call to action in headline position 2 versus headline position 3, or completely changing up and adding in some new headlines and descriptions into the ad copy. And by repeating that process every 30 days, you're able to very quickly increase your click through ratios and your conversion rates. So there are my three key points for making sure that your Google Ads account is ready for the big change on June 30, where you'll no longer be able to edit or add in any new expanded text ads. And to help you with this, and to make sure that you're always optimizing your Google Ads account in the right way, I want to give you my free Google Ads Optimization checklist. Now, this is a checklist that I've put together and it helps to make sure that you're completing the correct optimization actions in your Google Ads campaign every 72 hours, every week, every month, and every 90 days. And if you want to get your free copy of my Google Ads Optimization checklist, all you need to do is follow the link in the description right now. Now, remember what I said at the start of this video is that the change from expanded text ads to responsive search ads is only the first thing you need to be aware of. That's changing in June 30, because the other big change which is coming up very soon in Google Ads is that Google Ads is actually removing Universal analytics and changing over to Google Analytics 4. And next week I'm going to be releasing another video which specifically talks about making sure that your Google Ads account is is ready for that change to Google Analytics 4. And so that you don't miss out when that video goes live, make sure that you've not only subscribed to my channel, but you've also turned on the notification button so that you get notified when that video goes live. But in the meantime, if you want to learn more about dynamic keyword insertion and how to use it in your Google Ads campaign, I want you to go through and watch this video right here. Or if you want to learn more about how to actually complete proper split testing with responsive search ads, you can go through and watch this video right here. So thanks again for joining me and I look forward to seeing you in one of these two videos right now. See ya.